We began a new unit last week: Culture.
I've never really been interested in culture, especially the cultures of other people. During spanish class (the previous few years I've taken it), it would consistently be the most boring part of the lessons, in my opinion. However, sociology is really opening up my eyes to a new perspective on this. Instead of just talking about other cultures, we're looking at our own culture through the eyes of others. Stefan Shirmer's article got me thinking about the incredibly odd practices we have as Americans. For example, I've come to realize that a lot of signs we see while driving really aren't necessary.
It's funny... I'm starting to view Americans as jerks. We're all so ethnocentric (please excuse the exaggeration), and we have no idea how to adapt to new conditions/cultures. Since English is the "universal" language, we expect all places to speak it and that makes us take the language for granted.
If mankind was more culturally relative, I'm sure we would all be a lot nicer to those who don't share similar backgrounds to ourselves. Racism is a huge issue in our modern societies, and I'm starting to see the roots of it all.

Last week, we participated in the "Abandon Ship" activity. First of all, I thought it was really fun to defend our own cases while "attacking" others. Some people were really really passionate about the game while others decided to lay back and let natural selection take its course.
However, I wasn't expecting the lesson that was to come out of all of this. We analyzed the reasons as to why we kicked out certain people, learning that sometimes it didn't even depend on the descriptions of the characters, but rather on the personalities of the actors playing the parts. The quieter ones generally had an easier time staying alive because they stayed out of the spotlight. The teacher also did a good job of making us feel evil for kicking out certain people to save our own butts. This was especially true when she read the list of quotes that we said during our discussion. People can be extremely callous, even in a game.